In many situations, when fishing from the shore with a rod and line, it is desirable to have the bait suspended below a float at a given distance, depending upon the kind of fish to be caught. It is difficult or impossible, with conventional fishing equipment, to cast a float, sinker and bait with a rod unless the sinker, bait and float are close together when casting. Thus the amount of line between the float and the bait is quite limited, and the bait will not be very far below the float when they are in the water.
This invention provides a float which can have any selected amount of the line wrapped around surfaces of the float before casting; and the float structure is such that this wrapped line will remain wrapped while the float, sinker and bait are cast. When the float strikes the water, there is mechanism which causes the slack line on the float to feed out until it is all unwrapped.
When a fish is caught, the fisherman reels in the line, and the invention is constructed so that the first part of the reeling-in draws the sinker, bait and fish upward to the float; and further reeling-in moves the assembly toward the fishing rod. This is advantageous, because it makes it possible to bring the fish to the surface or near the surface first and to net the fish, if that is desired.
The principal advantages of the invention is that it is simple in construction; easy to use without prior practice; made with a minimum of movable parts and consistently reliable in operation. Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be pointed out as the description proceeds.